Haotian Wu

Why are you interested in sustainable energy solutions? Sustainable energy can reduce carbon emissions, which will help reduce climate change impacts. As an undergrad at UC San Diego, I experienced extremely hot weather in the summer without air conditioning in my dorm built in the 1970s. At the beginning of 2016, there was heavy rainfall in San Diego; many classrooms and my friends' dorms were flooded because the designers of the campus did not expect such a scenario decades ago. This memory makes me believe something needs to be done to reduce loss due to extreme weather conditions led by climate change. 

How are your personal history and vision assets to development and research in energy and sustainability? My master's thesis empirically analyzes the change in air pollution brought about by the NASCAR fuel-switching policy: Beginning in 2011, NASCAR adopted the new E15 gasoline (15% ethanol) for every car and truck in races. The research uses econometric models to compare the concentrations of some key air pollutants nearby racetracks before and after the change to E15. The air pollutants in the analysis mainly include NO2, SO2, CO, ozone, PM2.5, and PM10. Because the concentration of the pollutants also depends on weather conditions, the number of spectators and some time-invariant but unobserved characteristics, my research uses multi-way fixed effects models and controls for local temperature, precipitation, wind speed, and the number of spectators. In addition, I include the wind directions at the race tracks on matchdays in my regression analysis, comparing if there is any difference between upwind and downwind for concentrations of pollutants. 
 
Although I have graduated from the program, the research work will be publicly available next year.

What is your dream job and how will it contribute to a more sustainable energy landscape? I want to be an economic analyst in sustainable energy industries or get a tenure position in academia. Both placements will provide me opportunities to research the development of sustainable energy and its impact on society.

Who are potential key partners for your research? World Bank. The organization has many funding programs for sustainable energy projects, which could potentially help my research in the future.

Hobbies/Personal Interests: Hiking, road trips, badminton